I LIVE.

I'm actually writing after... almost 4 months! Holy cow. I've just been extremely busy. I started my 2nd trimester of High School. It's pretty fun. I have too many amazing friends to count. Here's an over view of all my classes:

Spanish- Mrs. Garza is my teacher and she is an amazing woman! She's so nice and funny and knows exactly how to control the bad kids. A great teacher. She gets in all these prank wars though. It's funny. One day we walked into our classroom- or tried to- and there were over 1,000 dixie cup coving the floor, each one filled with water. WE had to clean every single one up. It was a prank pulled by Briant Jacobs and his friend! She loved it and thought it was hilarious. It's a fun class. Also, I have a really good friend, Cassandra Hiner in that class. But I have her in 3 classes, so you know...

English- Ms. Hanson is my teacher, and even though I'm sure Susan Pfiefer is an AWESOME teacher, I LOVE LOVE LOVE Ms. Hanson more than anything! She's this cute little lady who has funny sayings like "orange peels" (random thoughts) and stuff. We do daily writes every day (free writes) and I love this. I might write one down later. Cassi is also in this class along with tons of other friends. That whole class is super close.

Social Science- So basically my first three classes are AMAZING. I was stupid and took HONORS SOCIAL SCIENCE, and it's extremely challenging, but it's worth it. This class is like FAMILY. I have all my really good friends in it like Brooke Lari, Anissa Tran, Emilie Weidenmeyer, Nate Preece and Pooja Shroff, and tons of other awesome people. There's also a guy named Christian who is seriously hilarious. It's an aweeesome class! Our teacher is also really down to earth. She handles all our craziness.

LUNCH- funnest thing ever. The end.

Choir- I bet you'd expect for this to be my favorite class, right? Wrong. It's my least favorite! Sadly. I'm a TENOR. The choir teacher is hilarious (his name is "G"), but we are only learning 3 SUPER easy songs, and I don't get along with the people... It's not too great. I'm doing choir next year because I would ranther get a hard class out of the way. I would keep doing it if I LOVE LOVED it, but tragically, I don't... :( At all.

PE- This class was really bad for a while. But then it got better, and then it got really creepy for a while. My PE teacher really scared me for a bit. I would come home to Mom with some stories that probably scared her out of her wits and got her protective mother mode on. But now we've decided that he's just really really really really REALLY friendly... Yeah. But the one good thing is that this class is never boring. For example, today I was walking with my friends to the locker room, and this girl, Kenzie, was saying to my friend Cassi about how we look alike. But then, this guy behind us heard us and thought that Kenzie was talking to HIM. And this guy was a 6'3"black guy with short dreads, sunglasses, baggy clothes and a general scary attitude. So it was super funny. Eventually I started talking to him and he's awesome. Now he's my "bodyguard". :) It's great fun.

So for the most part, school is good for me. I just got a 94/100 on an essay that most people got Ds on and I aced my Romeo and Juliet project. Woo.

The Highlight of my Week and "Past the Point of Normalness"

So on Friday, I was walking across the crosswalk from school, and the guy I was standing next to was talking to his friend about someone. I didn't take much notice in him, except he had a really cool jacket and he was riding one of those low bikes. Then, I happened to overhear part of their conversation. The person they were talking about sounded like me! So I casually asked them who this person was. Then, believe it or not, they told me that is WAS me! I asked them why the heck they knew me, and they told me that their friend had talked about me a lot lately. Their friend named Robert Jaber (A guy in my Bio class who I used to sit next to. He's really funny and awesome). That was so happy because they were saying such nice things about me... Robert must have given them a good impresssion. :) Anyway, that made my week.

Another funny thing that happened is that I was going through my old livejournal (very nostalgic!) and I found an old song I wrote to the tune of Past the Point of No Return because the real ones are bad.

Start from the very beginning...

We a strangly,
In our own little way,
the most happygolucky
people on the e-arth e-arth...
We have told you many times before now,
that it is good to be nice and
cra-zy, cra-zy...
Past the point of normalness,
we are now psychos,
we'll dance and sing and put on quite a show,
past the thought of being calm,
no point resisting,
our secret urge to prance around and sing,
we are the weirdest on the earth,
we've been this way since o-ur birth,
why can't you understand our strange ways...?
Past the point of normalness,
one final question,
will you throw us in mental homes or say...
"I'm past the point of normalness...."

Hahaha. I was such a spazzy kid. I remember making that up with Krista. Good times. :)

This is Halloween...

I'm tiiired.
Halloween was fun! I got no sleep, but it was fun. Audrey, the creative, awesome person that she is pent the whole day decorating and planning for it, and it was awesome. There was TONS of food, candy, and games. Guess what I was for Halloween? Well, I was going to be a banshee, but then I found an old dress of Mom's that looked very Pride and Prejudice-ish. So, I was Elizabeth Bennett for Halloween. I wasn't in my costume for very long though. We we're dancing and floor length dresses aren't good to dance crazily in. We watched The Village, had a scavenger hunt, and played Guitar Hero and SingStar. Fun stuff.

And now, oh woes of all woes, it's November!!! This Daylight Savings time switch is really depressing me, because it gets dark at FIVE PM. The good thing is that I get an extra hour to sleep! That's always good. :)

PS
COMMENT!

Water Polo, School, YW Blogs, Utah, Halloween and That Good Stuff.

Hi! It's me. I know. It's October! I'm so excited for Halloween. Nicole and I decorated while Mom and Dad were in Germany. I'm going to be the same thing last year (a "banshee", says the costume label...) and I'll be going to party with friends where we'll be trick-or-treating- I'm not too old!- and watching the movie "Signs". I recommended it. :)

So, last Thursday I went to one of Krista's water polo games. I must say, it's the most fun I've ever had watching a sport. The rules are simple, and it's so...vicious. They bite, scratch, drown each other... It's entertaining. Krista won, (of course) and I'm excited to see the Granada vs. Livermore game coming up next week!

Speaking of sports, we got creamed at the homecoming game (17 to 50- no joke) but the pep rally was fun. We got booed a LOT. Apparently we're terrible people for being Freshmen.

School is going a lot better for me. I love my friends. LHS people are so nice. I can't say I LOVE my classes, but I survive. Oh by the way! I'm COMING TO UTAHHH! I'm so excited. :) Aaah!!

Anywho. Hmm... What haven't I covered? Oh yeah. Our YW got a blog today. It's not up and running yet, but it will be by Sunday. It's great 'cause my leaders will post all the pictures of the activites! I wonder of I can invite family to the blog... Apparently there's a lot of pictures of me. ;)

Anything else? Ummm... yes. But nothing too exciting. Oh by the way- COMMENT OR I'LL BEAT YOU UP! It gives me motivation to blog more, instead of just once a month...

High School

Um, hi. I started High School almost two weeks ago. I hated it. Like, I HATED it. I would come home and just complain to Mom until I was too tired to talk.
Now it's better. I have lots of friends, and I have really good teachers (besides my Geometry teacher whom I... dislike very much...). I am getting used to the homework, and it's fun to go and have funny little experiences every day. Like the guy who asked me to tie his shoe 'cause he didn't know how. Or the guy I nicknamed Table. Or Pepe. It's fun stuff.
Like I said, my teachers are pretty cool. :)
I have Ms. Hanson, a very nice and fun English teacher, Mr. Vierra, a hilarious PE teacher who actually makes PE a little... fun. (Although it helps we're swimming. EASY.) then I have Mr. Corriea, my Geometry teacher...no comment there... Mrs. Haugen my very nice but strict Biology teacher who tends to ramble, and then there's Senora Crichlow. Senora Crichlow is an all attitude black lady who is a GREAT teacher, but sometimes gets so caught up in group discussions, we don't start class until 20 mintues before class is OVER.
Seminary is good as well. It really wakes me up in the morning.
And that's my life at the moment. In an extremely, EXTREMELY simplified and short version. Comment if you want to hear any more specifics. :D Buhbye.

Hide-and-Go-Seek With Monica

I forgot to mention one thing. This funny girl, Monica, is always joking that she's the only black girl in camp. So one night, she was telling us one night that she always wins at hide-and-go-seek at night because she blends in with the darkness. We laughed and headed to the bathroom. Well, 20 minutes later, she was getting mad because we were taking so long, so she told us she was leaving and would wait outside.
When we finally got out, we could NOT find Monica... Until we saw a floating yellow t-shirt. It took us a while to realize that is was Monica! We just couldn't see her because she really was blending in!

Girls Camp... Probably the longest post I've ever... posted.

I did it. I went to Girls Camp! I was really nervous because I did NOT like it my first two years, but this year, I actually REALLY enjoyed most of it. I wish I had pictures, but my camera died the first day. Bummer.
We left for our over night hike on Tuesday. A bit rushed, us just getting there Monday afternoon. We drove probably a 30 minute drive to where we started. The actual hike was a bit weird for me. It went straight uphill, and I thought to myself "If it's like this the whole time, I'm going to DIE!" But then it changed majorly. It went from uphill and foresty to downhill and out in the open. They second half of the hike was just climbing down rocks. About 10 minutes into the downhill part, I fell down a big rock. NOT FUN. I still have a big scar, although it's almost healed. It's not very pretty. But honestly, it barely hurt. Everyone was making a huge fuss over it, but I just told them it was fine. They thought I had gone into shock or something. It was pretty funny. (To me.)
Now that I look back, that hike actually kind of had a sense of humor, especially on the way back. It makes you SO out of breath and you think you're about to die, and then it's over.
The over night part was actually pretty easy. Of course I was spoiled by Dad's awesome backpacking gear, but still. It was fun to set up our tent (I shared one with Audrey) although it was NOT fun to sleep in it. I missed my pillow that night. :(
Around 8 pm that night, after dinner (consisting of top ramen-yum!) we took a short hike to this big rock where we watched the sun go down. It was SO PRETTY and relaxing. I just laid there and had my friend Mae Lin play with my hair.
I woke up around 6 am. The frustrating thing about this hike was you weren't allowed to go to the bathroom alone, and I had a really small bladder, so poor Audrey had to come with me every time. So I woke her up probably way too early for her liking and made her wait. (By the way- I was terrified to go to the bathroom behind a tree, but it ended up being no big deal. ) We ate our breakfast (consisting of hot chocolate and too-runny oatmeal) and did some certification. I was surprised. Usually the certification is boring but I like it this year. We pumped water, (okay, that wasn't too fun), made shelters (Barbie sized), started fires (without matches!), and wrote haikus about nature. Or, mostly about nature. Here are some, just for fun:
Cliffs
The cliffs stand solemn,
looking down upon the earth,
watching the lake gleam.

Watching
People watch the lake,
I watch the small things instead,
the leaves breeze softly.

We were only required to write two about nature, so I gave up on that subject. This next poem haiku thing basically explains why.

Poetry
I'm not poetic,
I try extremely hard though,
but I can't do it.

Yeah...

Crazy Sock Day
It's crazy sock day,
It is not good for hiking,
Reindeer don't feel good.

(One of Laura's crazy socks had a huge reindeer sticking off of it.)

Stand By Me
We sing "Stand By Me",
Our tent neighbors are annoyed,
but we still sing on.

(I'll explain that haiku a bit later...)
Anyway, after that we went on a day hike before heading out on our ACTUAL hike. He basically trail blazed around the lake. It was fun, but scary. I had to hold Krista's hand the whole time- literally- just to stay brave. We were climbing over logs and all OVER the place. There was absolutely NO trail. On the way to our destination, Ken Black discovered Wombat droppings. As he was explaining their habitat and that exciting stuff, he mentioned that Wombat droppings were EDIBLE, popped one in in his mouth, and ate it. I know it's insane, but I decided that it didn't kill him, so it wouldn't kill me and tried one. all I said was "This is the best poo I've ever had!" Then Laura ate it and spoiled the fun by saying, "Hey, this is chocolate!!" That was a fun experience. :)
The hike back was mean. When I saw our cars, or more importantly, our AIR CONDITIONERS AND COMFY SEATS, I sang "hallelujah". We got in the car, but then we had ANOTHER hike after a too short drive. It wasn't hard at all though. It was Tragedy Spring. There they had the BEST TASTING WATER EVER! And that was my hike.
Now about that "Stand By Me" haiku. I get sick of being around people pretty easily. So when we ("we" being Me, Krista, and Audrey) got sick of hanging around a too crowded cabin, we ran maybe 20 or 30 feet to cabin 6 where we sang our heart out for hours on end. We'd make up cool harmonies to songs like Stand By Me and Witch Doctor. It was super fun. Also, on the last day we got on in a bubble fight (a bubble fight being blowing bubbles at each other and then throwing the bubble stuff at each other) with some bubbles I had one for Crazy Hair Day. Yeah, I WON crazy hair day. WOOT!
Tubing was pretty fun, and climbing was... climbing... Let's see... Oh! Our leaders. We had great leaders. There was T.P. (that's her nickname, her real name is Tracy Persson) who was this crazy lady who was also cracking jokes, then Sister West, who was nice, quiet and kind. A good balance. Then there was Kayla Coolbear. OH MAN, she was awesome. Truly an awesome leader, although she was more like one of the girls. I love her.
What else... oh yeah. In addition to my minor leg injury, a couple first years were chasing a lizard and while bending over into the fire pit, the lid to the fire pit slammed close. OUCH! Also, a girl in our cabin hurt herself while tubing. She took some medicine for it, but she got night terrors as a side effect. She started spazzing in her sleep and we couldn't wake her up, and since she was sleeping up stairs, she might fall down the stairs so people had to stay up with her ALL NIGHT. I was VERY tired the next morning.
Testimony meeting was great. Laura, a non-Mormon bore her testimony, and near the end of the night, to my surprise, Audrey got up there. I was so proud of her. If you're reading this, you rocked, Audrey!
Since then I've been tubing like crazy, swimming, making music videos, and lots of other fun stuff. Our next YW activity is WATER AEROBICS! How awesome is that!?
Well, I'm going to quit before I get carpel tunnel.